


We Are Family

by Odsbodkins



Series: Family is what you make it [2]
Category: Captain America (Movies), The Avengers (2012)
Genre: Alternate Universe, F/M, M/M, Mpreg, Unconventional Families
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-06-13
Updated: 2013-06-13
Packaged: 2017-12-14 21:25:28
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 6,019
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/841560
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Odsbodkins/pseuds/Odsbodkins
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Sequel to <a href="http://archiveofourown.org/works/650276">Like Father, Like Daughter</a>. </p><p>Bucky has his memories back, so it's time to rebuild a relationship, spend some quality time with family and meet the rest of the Avengers.</p>
            </blockquote>





	We Are Family

 

Clint was contemplating the best way to get out of SHIELD medical, then which country it would be best to emigrate to. Then, thinking through who he was up against, the possibilities of Tony knocking together some sort of spaceship so he could go and live on another planet. Mars was seeming nice. Short on breathable atmosphere, other people, and any sort of utilities; but (and this was the important thing) also short of his girlfriend's father.

He had been replaying the moment when the Winter Soldier had broken his leg in three places in one fluid motion and had been about to follow through and kill him when Steve had shown up. The same Winter Soldier who happened to be his girlfriend's father.

"He's a great guy when he has no reason to kill you" was what Natasha had said the previous day. He'd recognised her expression too, the unmistakable one of a girlfriend who is soon going to introduce you to a family member or friend they've known since they were in preschool. A friend or family member who will judge you with all the openness and fairness of a Soviet show-trial.

His broken leg had been pinned back together nicely, and he was now on his feet. He already tried talking his way out, but had been informed that he was being kept in for some more intensive physical therapy. So he was stuck, more twitchy and nervous than any mission. Missions just threatened your life. This was threatening his life, his relationship with the only woman he'd ever really loved, and at this rate, his sanity.

There was a knock at the door, and Natasha came in, smiling, followed by the object of his fear.

"Papa, this is Clint. Clint, this is my father. Who Is Very Sorry About Your Leg." Clint recognised that tone of voice. When used on him it was in context of not taking something seriously enough.

The man extended his arm (but Clint couldn't stop looking at the mechanical one, the one he'd broken Clint's leg with), smiled and said, "Call me Bucky."

Clint shook his hand. "Good to meet you, sir." People that terrifying should not be called Bucky, so he was playing it safe. But that was what Cap had called him, so presumably that meant he'd remembered.

"I am sorry about your leg. It's just been too much fun telling Natasha that I was going to terrify you-“

"Yeah, a little late there."

Bucky smiled ruefully. "Isn't much more I can say than sorry, is there? But, huh, I'm not quite the guy I was last week. So relax."

"No lectures about dating your daughter?"

"Nope. Gave her combat training instead. You hurt her, she hurts you. Though I may be on the sidelines cheering her on." Bucky sat in the chair by the bed and stretched. "I think I'm gonna need to stretch for a day for each day they kept me in those restraints. Anyway, she's told me how you met, so you know how well she fights already."

Clint smiled, managing to relax a little. "Don't make me rate which one of you scares me more."

"Steve's sworn me to good behavior, so it has to be Natasha."

If he was talking about Steve like that then he had to have remembered. Clint was itching to ask questions (starting with gathering any embarrassing stories about Cap, because that was too good an opportunity to pass up), but needed to stay on Natasha's good side, so best to start neutrally.

"So, you remember before 1945 now, right?"

"Yeah. Kinda weird. Like I can remember being two different people. So I guess I'm a third person now."

"Not the guy who broke my leg?"

Bucky grinned. "That jerk? No, not him."

Natasha smacked him on the shoulder. "Hey, that jerk's my papa."

Bucky leaned over and ruffled her hair, and said something in Russian. Clint would guess from Natasha's slightly embarrassed smile that it was some sort of childish endearment. He was genuinely starting to relax now. The terrifying assassin was turning out a lot less frightening than some other girlfriends' families. Though this did give him a thought.

"Natasha never mentioned her mom. I was wondering-"

He had definitely gone into bad territory here. All the ease was gone. Damn.

Bucky scratched his head. "Yeah. That's... complicated. And Natasha's choice to explain."

Nat looked genuinely uncomfortable. "I don't want-"

"It's fine, it's cool, I really don't need to know. Really. Don't care if you were grown in a vat or raised by wolves. Though raised by wolves is kinda cool and you should totally tell me if you were."

That got him a smile. He relaxed. Out of the danger zone. Time to change the subject.

"So, any embarrassing stories about Cap?" 

Bucky gave the widest, most feral grin Clint had seen in some time.

"Agh, Papa, no, just no, don't even think-"

"I wouldn't. I'm just enjoying how much I can mess with you."

Clint looked at each of them. "I'm missing something."

"You know how Cap said that papa was his best friend? Try boyfriend."

Clint was very proud that he managed to keep his mouth shut at that level of revelation. "Really...?"

Bucky rolled his eyes. "All the Commandos guessed, but forty years of gay rights and none of you guessed. Kids nowadays."

"Are you- I mean- are you two-" Bucky maintained level eye contact with Clint, smiling all the time, while Clint singularly failed to formulate a question along the lines of "So, my beloved girlfriend's father, are you back fucking my team leader?". It wasn't something covered in training.

Eventually Bucky put him out of his misery. "Can't pretend that nothing's happened and we can go back to what it was before. So, we are officially Dating. I asked him, because you'll grow old waiting for Steve to ask you out."

"Wow." There wasn't much more to say to that.

"More importantly, Natasha tells me you've got some stupid ideas about bows and arrows being better than guns..."

\---

Bucky may have told Clint that he was dating Steve, but it was a little more complicated than that. Which was entirely SHIELD's fault. They were still worried about any underlying programming that he might still have, and were keeping him securely in the base. He was allowed to move around the building if accompanied by Steve or Natasha, but otherwise he was either in a small windowless room or in the medical labs.

So he couldn't exactly take Steve out on a date.

The surveillance meant that he also couldn't put into practice his preferred plan, which would be for him and Steve to screw each other senseless until that particular itch was scratched, then have the difficult talk about what they were going to do now.

The best he came up with was inviting Steve back to his room to watch tv. It was better than nothing.

They sat on the tiny couch together, and Steve looked at the floor, looked up to Bucky and-

"You're going to apologise again, Steve. Don't. Getting old."

"Sorr- uh. Um."

Bucky slid his arm around Steve's waist and tucked his head under Steve's chin. If the tiny couch was going to make them snuggle he was going to do it properly. He felt Steve's arm around him and gave a contented sigh. "So, you gonna tell me what you've been doing since they defrosted you?"

Steve told him, from waking up in a fake room to saving New York. Of course, Bucky had been briefed about all of this before being sent to kill Captain America, but he wanted to hear Steve talk about it. In all honesty he just wanted to hear Steve talk.

"Stark's kid seems like a chip off the old block."

"Don't let him hear you say that. Apparently they didn't get on." Steve gave a little sigh. "I was a complete ass to Tony when I first met him."

Bucky sat up and looked at Steve, grinning. "You were a complete ass to someone on your team? Really?"

Steve gave a sad smile. "I guess he reminded me a little of Howard, but he wasn't him. A reminder that everything had gone. Which doesn't excuse me being an ass."

Bucky could imagine. Tony sounded like he was mouthy and arrogant, the obvious target for Steve if Steve was upset and out of his depth. "This is why you need me around. Call me a jerk all you like, I ain't gonna get prissy about it."

"Jerk."

"Yeah, still don't care. Asshole." He leant forwards on that last word and kissed Steve.

Really, he had intended for it to be a peck on the lips, nothing more (they were on a date, he was allowed to kiss him). Really and truly. But Steve had parted his lips and put a hand on his neck and it had just escalated from there. It was the point that Steve moaned into the kiss that he realised that they were both about thirty seconds from coming in their pants. Not a problem for him, but he suspected Steve would not appreciate the walk of shame through SHIELD with damp slacks. He broke off the kiss and rested his forehead on Steve's.

"You about to give me a lecture on safe sex, Buck?"

"You're still not as funny as you think you are. You know they said that ain't happening again. But they're watching us, Steve. And recording us."

"I'm trying real hard to care. Not working."

"Just so it ain't my fault when you can't make eye contact with anyone tomorrow." But Steve was already unbuttoning Bucky's pants. Steve was rarely reckless, but when he was, he went all out. Bucky shifted position to more comfortably straddle Steve's lap (and incidentally block the view of the action for three out of the five cameras whose location he was pretty sure of). He unbuttoned Steve's shirt, then started on his pants. Soon they were skin to skin, and god, Bucky had missed this. Even still half-dressed on an uncomfortable couch. He was kissing Steve and grinding down, and when Steve put one big hand round both of their dicks that was enough and he was coming. A couple of strokes later and Steve was coming too.

He rested his head against Steve's shoulder and said rather loudly, "I want everyone to know that I haven't had sex in a very, very long time, and I can definitely last longer than that normally."

Steve chuckled. "Sure you can, champ."

Bucky gave him an evil look. "Says the man who's demonstrated that Captain America will put out on the first date. Star-Spangled Slut."

"You call me the nicest things." Steve kissed him.

Bucky had already found the handkerchief he knew would be in Steve's pocket and was cleaning them both up. They redressed, and Bucky inspected Steve critically. "You don't look too debauched. You'll pass for anyone who wasn't watching."

"I think we were having a conversation before you distracted me."

"You kissed me back, this is all your fault."

"Hey, you've always been the bad influence on me, not the other way around."

"Keep telling yourself that, Rogers."

They were tucked together again, Steve unconsciously stroking Bucky's hair. "Are you- Is there anything about when you were the Winter Soldier that you're ok talking about?"

"You really want to know?"

"Of course I want to know what you've been doing for the past seventy years. Idiot. But if you don't want to talk about it-"

"No, it's ok. There's lots I don't want to talk about, but some of it's ok. I'm not telling you any embarrassing childhood stories about Natasha either. I'm going to save those in case I need any favors from her."

He talked. About Natasha, about the choices he had to make for her (and the choices that were taken out of his hands). About bits of missions, missing out any of the really brutal parts, but about tactics and enemies that he knows Steve would appreciate. About all the places he'd been, things that he'd seen. The wonderful things that sneaked in among the pain and death.  Like coming face to face with a Siberian tiger in a snowfield as the aurora danced its colours above them (the tiger had snorted and backed off, sensing a predator it didn't want to challenge).

It was the small hours of the morning when they finally realised what time it was.

"Guess we had a lot to catch up on."

"I kinda think we still do, Steve." They kissed, and Steve left. Bucky flopped onto the bed, vaguely feeling that if things were going this well then it meant that something bad was around the corner.

\---

Fury was with Agent Hill, in a meeting about their latest problem. Potentially a major asset for SHIELD, but right now a problem.

"You knew. You knew about Barnes and Rogers and you still sent him out to bring him in."

"Best chance of breaking through the programming. A calculated risk."

"Of the three senior agents on that mission, you knew two were already compromised."

"It worked, Hill. That's what matters."

"So what now? We let him go home with Captain Rogers and hope he doesn't flip and break his neck in his sleep?"

"As far as we can tell he is no longer under the Red Room's control. So another calculated risk. Rogers is prepared to take that risk-"

"I do not trust Captain Rogers' judgement on anything involving Barnes, sir."

"It's still his neck on the line. Though I agree on Rogers' judgement."

"Then what? "

"We send Rogers and Romanov out into the field together, and leave Barnes home. We see if our newest asset behaves without supervision, and see if Rogers and Romanov can still work together."

Agent Hill raised an eyebrow at Fury. "Permission to call the mission 'Take Your Daughter To Work Day', sir."

"Denied, Agent Hill."  

\---

Steve was pleased with the way the mission had gone. It was easy to ignore the fact that Natasha was apparently his daughter, since for all intents and purposes they were about the same age. So they'd gone back to the old routine and it had worked well. Right now though he was climbing the stairs of his apartment building three at a time, and ignoring the insistent little voice in his head that was saying that Bucky being back was too good to be true, that he'd just come back to an empty apartment.

Bucky was there, all smiles, only in his skivvies with the heating turned up far too high (the first thing he'd done on moving in was abuse the heating, 'been on state-controlled temperature too long, Steve').

'Hello' took what felt like about twenty seconds to turn into 'fucking like rabbits', not that Steve was complaining. At least they managed to make it as far as the bed, finally finishing up in a sticky sated heap on top of the covers.

Steve mumbled into Bucky's neck. "Missed you."

Bucky was all of sudden lying on top of him, looking at him very seriously. "Did you miss me, or did you miss the guy who fell off that train?"

"What?"

"Did you miss me, right now me, fucked-up me, the one who screams in his sleep and speaks Russian when he forgets? Or did you miss some guy from 1945?"

"Bucky..."

"I gotta know. I ain't him."

Steve thought for a moment. He knew he couldn't bullshit Bucky, never had been able to. And he didn't want to. But he knew that the wrong answer now might well end up with Bucky walking out of the door, and he couldn't deal with that. "That guy who fell off the train, we were practically joined at the hip. You, you've lived a life without me. I'm getting to know you over again. And I'm not going to pretend that you don't have problems, but there's good stuff too. You're more... thoughtful. I don't know, perhaps you were getting like that before. Like the first time I saw you with a sniper rifle I couldn't believe how still and focussed you could be. You're even more like that now. And I'd never have guessed how good a father you'd be." He reached up and cupped Bucky's face. "I missed all of you."

Bucky leaned down and kissed him gently. "You, on the other hand, are just the same. Far too damn good for this shitty planet. Missed you like crazy."

"What've you been doing?"

"Trying to persuade SHIELD to put me on active duty. By which I mean, let me watch your back. It needs watching, Steve, whatever you say. I'll trust Natasha to do it, but I'd rather it was me. They've tested everything, from what languages I speak to my marksmanship. And I repainted the bathroom. You did say you hated the bandage-color too."

"I'd say thanks, but what color is it now?"

"It's a mural with you riding a unicorn. Naked."

"Haha."

"Blue. And I took Clint out for dinner." Bucky smiled at that, one of his more evil smiles.

"What did you do to him?"

"I just took him out to dinner. Ok, so I worked out where he lived, turned up at his door with no warning and it was pretty awesome when he damn near crapped his pants when he opened the door. But that was it, and I paid for dinner. He's a nice guy. I may be on the verge of approving of him."

\---

Natasha was drinking tea with her father. That much was the same as it always had been. Almost everything else was different. Instead of a dark bunker they were sat at a table in her apartment, sunlight streaming in through the windows. And her father was different. Some ways were good. He was more relaxed, he smiled more, the sense of humor that she'd seen glimpses of was allowed a more free rein. But now he verged on the insolent, came across as cocky and she was less keen on that.

She would also never, ever, admit it to anyone, but she was slightly jealous that she was no longer the only person in her father's life. It had always been just them, for all that they were surrounded by a larger organisation. Sure, she was the one who had originally made the break, who had gone off on her own and lost contact with her father for several years. But she'd always, somewhat selfishly, assumed that if they were reunited she would be the sole focus of her father. She knew that she was dangerously close to casting Steve as her wicked stepmother, especially ridiculous as they were actually related. But it was difficult to stay annoyed at Steve, especially as he was positively exuding happiness at the moment.

But things really were good. After she defected she assumed that she would never see her father again (or in the worst case, that she would see him for the last time to kill him).

Her papa still spoke in Russian to her, and she was glad of that. The way he spoke in English had changed significantly since he recovered his memories, but his Russian was the same.

"I know what SHIELD are thinking. That I'm full of hidden programming and brainwashing, and the moment they turn their back I'm going to wipe out every senior agent."

"Can you be sure you won't?"

"You haven't. I assume that most of what they did to me they did to you too." 

"Perhaps we were both programmed, and just waiting for the signal."

"That's SHIELD's problem. They overthink, they overcomplicate, they over-technologize. The only programming I had was basic Soviet indoctrination, and the only thing they needed to keep me working was you. They didn't need any more. Anything more complicated can go wrong too easily. That's their weakness."

Natasha nodded. She knew that this wasn't her father plotting against SHIELD, but rather an automatic response that they both had, to analyse weaknesses in case you needed them later. "One power cut away from anarchy."

"Exactly. But I doubt that pointing this out will endear me to them."

\---

Tony had come to the conclusion that he needed to invite the rest of the Avengers to live in Stark Towers a few weeks ago. Battered and bruised from his latest misadventures, he'd come to New York to find that Bruce had actually taken him up on his offer of living and lab space, and Tony was so damn happy and relieved to see him that he'd actually hugged the guy. He'd never seen Bruce look so surprised, and made a mental note that surprise was obviously not one of the things that triggered the appearance of the Other Guy.

Tony did his best not to over-analyse himself, as it was a fruitless and probably endless task. So what if he felt that he'd feel better if the other Avengers were somewhere he could control the security of. So what if he felt protective about them. He'd get them to move in. Then he could just move on to being annoyed with Steve about whatever Steve had chosen to be an uptight prick about, rather than being annoyed and sort of worried at the same time. Ditto Natasha and Clint, but substituting 'kinda scared of' for 'annoyed with'.

He figured that he'd have to ask Steve first, if it was going to be official. Tony being Tony, the first step to this was to hack SHIELD's less secure files to find out what Cap had actually been up to recently (some clear and present threats would make the offer more persuasive).

Some routine mission with Natasha. Then before that- huh. Another deep-frozen Howling Commando. What were the chances of that? He read the mission report with increasing interest. Not just a Commando, but a pretty terrifying Soviet assassin, and, fuck, Natasha's father. He tried to bring up the more detailed files for this Barnes, but they were on some of SHIELD's tightest encryption. He knew he could crack them, but that risked SHIELD knowing that he could crack them. He wanted to save that for something more important than this. He went laterally, looking for Natasha's files, and found similar encryption.

He pulled up a video link to Bruce's lab. "You need to read this."

He waited while Bruce read.

"Nice for Steve."

"We need to meet him. Find out if Capsicle was this uptight in the 40s."

"You'd take an assassin out for dinner for dirt on Steve?"

"You wouldn't?"

"I doubt assassins take unsolicited invites well."

"Either Steve or Natasha will vouch for us. Probably."

Tony texted both of them. <We need to meet the ex-Soviet Sargesicle.>

Steve texted back first, replying to both Tony and Natasha (Tony would never admit it to his face, but Steve was a relatively fast learner at technology). <I'd ask you to stop hacking SHIELD if I thought it would make any difference. His name is Bucky and he's quite happy to meet you.>

Bruce gave Tony a look. “He didn't even ask what Sargesicle meant. He's getting used to you, Tony."

Then a text from Natasha. <Out of town. Do not mess with my Papa, Stark. This is your only warning.>

"It's nice to know that the family reunion hasn't softened Natasha any."

\---

Bruce didn't think he would ever get used to the multiple faces of SHIELD agents. At least his other side had the decency to look different. But he was waiting to have a polite and civilised dinner with a man that he knew from the little that Tony had got from SHIELD to be a cold-blooded killer, with a reputation as the most ruthless (and thus the best) assassin behind the Iron Curtain. An intimate soiree, Tony, Pepper, him, Steve and an assassin.

When the lift doors to the penthouse opened, the man who was with Steve didn't look like a ruthless killer. They never did. He was a little older than Steve, a little scruffier (but everyone was a little scruffier than Steve). Not a face you'd pick out of a crowd. But Bruce was also drawn immediately to the changes in Steve. He carried himself differently, still upright, but more relaxed than Bruce had ever seen him. Even his smile seemed to have changed, more genuine, catching up his whole face. Someone familiar was obviously good for him.

"Bucky, this is Tony, Bruce and Pepper."

Bucky held his hand out to shake Tony's, but Tony instead was looking at the mechanical hand, catching up Bucky's wrist in his hand. "That's some Soviet cybernetics, right?"

"You know, Steve, I thought you were kidding when you said he'd be all over the arm in less than ten seconds."

"It's a whole arm? Why was this not in the mission report? How does it integrate at the shoulder? Take your jacket and t-shirt off."

"At least buy me a drink first."

Bruce laughed as Tony came up short. But Tony wasn't nonplussed for long. "Cap, you never told us people from the 40s could make jokes. You've been holding out on us."

"Jeez, do you ever stop?"

"Sometimes I'm asleep."

"He doesn't. He talks in his sleep." supplied Pepper. She smiled brightly, "So you've known Steve for a while?"

Bucky removed his wrist from Tony's grip. "Steve tells me that none of you have the security clearance to know any of this."

Tony made a dismissive gesture. "If they really didn't want me to know they'd encrypt their files better."

"So what do you know?"

Bruce recognised standard agent behavior. Never give away any information if you don't have to.

"You're a Howling Commando. You fell off a train, got amnesia, got picked up by the Russians, turned into the Winter Soldier, got that arm which you are going to have to let me look at, somewhere along the line found time to father Natasha. Brought in by SHIELD a couple of months back, hospitalising Clint in the process, which I'm impressed with as a whole alien invasion didn't do that, got your memories back."

Steve and Bucky shared a look, more of a whole silent conversation.

"I guess it's ok for you to know some more. 'Kay, so I've known Steve since we were kids. What were we, seven? Eight?"

"I was seven, you were eight."

"So I stopped his skinny ass from being beaten up by three kids twice his size. Sorta ended up hanging out together. Never really stopped. Until, well, yeah, you know about that."

"Just miss out the bit where you took on the whole Wehrmacht without me."

"Yeah, but you had to save my ass that time, doesn't make me look as good."

The rhythm between them, the quick glances each gave to the other, the body language - were they a couple? But they'd been in the army together, and as well Bruce knew that the 'rules' of what was intimate were probably different from the 40s to now. He'd just keep watching. He glanced over at Pepper, who gave him a look that showed she was thinking the same thing. Tony on the other hand was obviously too fascinated by Bucky's arm (which he used as naturally as his other arm, only the fact that it was metal showing it was artificial) to be paying much attention to the nuances of the interaction.

Pepper smiled and raised a knowing eyebrow. "So you must know some pretty good stories about Steve."

Bucky tapped his head. "All in here. And that's where they're staying, cos he knows all about me too."

Pepper managed to get them all to the table. Steve pointedly sat between Tony and Bucky's arm, at which Tony made a face. Bucky leant forwards and gave him the finger with that hand, while smiling cheerfully.

"You're enjoying needling him way too much, Buck."

"SHIELD shrinks told me to get a hobby. This is better than knitting."

"So I don't get a sweater for Christmas?"

"Human radiators don't need sweaters."

Bruce was becoming more convinced that they were a couple, even to the way that they slightly leaned in to each other. Their food arrived, packaged up from some five star restaurant and couriered over to the tower. Steve asked about Tony's latest run-in with mortality, seeming genuinely concerned. Tony of course minimised everything. Bruce wondered what it would take for him to admit to a weakness in front of Steve. Bruce asked about Natasha, and Bucky positively beamed with pride when talking about her (all, Bruce noted, carefully vague statements, nothing that pinned either of them to a time or place or event).

It wasn't the worst dinner Bruce had been to. In fact, listening to Tony and Bucky try to out-snark each other was quite entertaining.

"So, I bought you dinner, I get to see the arm, right?"

"You think I'm easy, Stark? Don't give me that look Steve. Oh, fine, you can see the arm. But you break it, and you find out how bad I can hurt you with just one arm."

Tony looked like a kid at Christmas. He brought them all to his nearest workspace and Bucky stripped off his jacket and t-shirt. The arm gleamed, a little dented in places, a large red star prominent on the shoulder. There were scars over that side of his torso too, probably from whatever had caused him to lose the arm. Tony held the arm gently, looking at it intently from shoulder to wrist.

"The casing's older than the mechanism, right?"

"Yeah, apart from the hand and any panels that were damaged and replaced that's pretty much a 50s casing. Don't ask me how it works."

Tony removed one of the access panels and started rummaging inside. "So, Cap, Bruce has moved in here. I'm thinking of asking the rest of the Avengers, thought I'd ask you first."

"Have asked Fury about this?"

Tony gave him a look.

"Thought not." Steve thought for a moment. "It's not a bad idea. Centralises security, means the team's together if we're needed. Less good if we're still trying to keep a low profile for Natasha and Clint-"

"Do you have any idea how many people work in this building? They won't stand out."

"Have you asked Natasha and Clint?"

"Not yet, team leader first."

Another look between Steve and Bucky before Steve spoke again. "Yeah. If Fury says it's ok, and Clint and Natasha say yes too. And you get Bucky too."

Tony was deep in contemplation of the inner workings of Bucky's arm. "Sure, plenty of rooms."

"Steve, I thought you said he was smart."

Tony looked up with a confused expression. Bruce said, "I don't think they'd need an extra room Tony."

Steve slid his hand into Bucky's and they both smiled.

"Wow. Huh. This some post-freezing carpe diem thing, or a been screwing since the 40s thing?"

"Since the 30s."

"So not the 90 year old virgin then?"

This caused Bucky to burst out laughing. "Jesus, Tony, I had to peel ten women off him to get him out of any bar during the war, we practically had to honor guard him to the bathroom cos he couldn't take a piss without being propositioned by some guy. Ended up with an agreement that I had to take him home early so the other guys got a shot at the girls. Not that I was objecting, course." 

Bruce asked the obvious question. "So they knew? The Commandos, I mean?"

"Everyone knew. It was - there's a war on, we need everyone, so we're gonna turn a blind eye, just don't start making out in the mess, don't do anything that could make it onto a newsreel."

"Did my dad know?"

"Your dad needed to learn to knock. You gonna put my arm back together or just stand there gawping?"

Tony went back to rummaging in Bucky's arm. "Kinda finding out that the guy from dad's 'why aren't you like Captain America' lectures was not Steve Rogers."

"Your father did that?" Steve looked genuinely surprised. "That’s- that's a really good reason hate me. Uh, sorry."

"Then you made it perfectly clear what you thought about me, Cap."

"I- sorry. I, um, not my finest hour. I misjudged you."

"Yeah, well, seems that goes both ways." Tony looked up at Bucky. "You need to let me make you a new arm. This one's a mess, it's running fifties wiring with eighties circuits with  ten year old Stark industries cybernetics that never made it to the market, so I'm going to have to find out when your friends managed to steal them. I've no idea how it's even managing to still be working now, let alone long term."

"It works fine."

"For the moment, perhaps. And I can make it better."

"I don't get something for nothing, Stark. What do you want?"

"As a guy, I'm pretty much that it's a public service that you shouldn't be going near anyone's dick with that arm, let alone Captain America's."

Bruce winced at that, which was nothing compared to Steve's full-body shudder. Even Pepper looked uncomfortable. But Bucky was still relaxed. "Got another hand, Tony. SHIELD took a bunch of trackers and bugs out of this arm when they brought me in, I'm sure they put their own in at the same time. You want your own Stark industries monitoring in there? You want to spy on SHIELD? Or Steve? Or put in a remote override, so you can take me out with my own arm?"

"I was going to put in a tracker, yes, but I was going to tell you about it. As for the rest, we're not all paranoid super-spies. It's an engineering challenge. I want to do it to prove I can do it better. That's all. And if you want to get it passed and checked and re-checked and bugged to hell by SHIELD, then you do that."

Bucky looked at his arm, flexed the fingers and smiled. "Guess I need to get used to being around people who ain't agents." He looked at Tony. "You want to build me an arm, you go ahead. But don't think that means I owe you. It was your idea. And any funny stuff and I'll make you pay."

"Understood. Hey, does your daughter know you're screwing her team leader?"

"Yeah. With the usual 'my parents never had sex ever' denial, of course. So you're not going to bring it up with her. Ever. You get one warning."

"You and Natasha even threaten people in the same way. It's sweet."

\---

It wasn't a difficult decision for Natasha and Clint to agree to move in to Stark (Avengers) Towers. The massive negatives of "living with father/girlfriend's father and Tony Stark" were easily outweighed by the enormous positive of "24/7 access to Tony's coffee machines".

But there did need to be ground rules.

**Avengers House Rules, as agreed by all parties.**

1\. Public displays of affection which would be suitable to be broadcast on Sesame Street are acceptable in communal areas of the tower. Anything more explicit is what you have rooms for. This includes when you think that no-one else is in.  
2\. No making reference to the sex life of either Bucky or Natasha in the presence of the other.  
3\. Any affectionate term used by Bucky to refer to Natasha may not be used by anyone else without Natasha's written approval.  
4\. We are not Tony or Bruce's lab rats.

And it worked. It really did. A fresh start that allowed them to reappraise each other, and actually come out liking each other a lot better (though as Clint said, it was a lot easier to like the people you live with when someone else is cleaning the bathroom and doing the washing up).


End file.
